Fandom hate is something a lot of us are familiar with. While it almost always comes down to a sweeping generalization about an entire group of people based on the actions of a few who identify as part of that group, it happens quite often. As negativity continues to be called out, however, those who blindly attack fandoms are being taken to task.

Podcast Zero’s Kyuubethe3rd directed me to a YouTube video not too long ago. Apart from being the average unfunny hyperbolic kind of garbage that’s a dime a dozen on YouTube, it made the attempt at debunking the comparison between people saying lolicon causes pedophilia and people saying violent videogames cause real violence.

Among some in the anime community, there’s an aversion to any commercialism in anime. To them, there’s a line between anime that’s meant to be artistic, and anime that’s just meant to make money, and naturally, the “artistic” anime is better than the anime that’s meant to make money.

It’s no secret that I hate the word “pandering” as it’s used by the Anti-Moé Brigade. Further than that, however, it’s often a poor word to use in the way it’s used due to its meaning and connotation. The way it’s used makes it really easy to obfuscate one’s meaning, or to say something that one doesn’t mean, and that’s harmful.

Looking back at the Free!situation, an easy question to ask is “Why were the same people who advocate unity and decry hostility in the anime fandom so quick to laugh at the moé fandom and revel in their anger when the show proper was announced?”

Let any given moé debate go on long enough and eventually, it’ll end up at a point where someone mentions how “hard to define” moé is, despite the fact that it had still been a debate about moé up to that point and past it. Interestingly enough, this point is almost always brought up by the anti-moé side of the debate, who evidently don’t understand what moé is, but certainly know enough about it to hate it.

Drawingirl94 recently posted a fantastic article on her blog. She articulated in a way I never could things I’ve been saying for a long time about the subject of lolicon. Reading it has given me a fresh perspective on the issue, and I want to revisit it, because I feel like my point is somewhat lacking.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica took the anime community by storm when it aired in the beginning on 2011. It was being compared to Evangelion, and, to a certain extent, the comparisons were valid. The two shows are quite different, but the one major similarity they share is that both were popular in both Japan and the Western market. Indeed, Madoka may be the first show since Eva to really hit it big and gain widespread acclaim in the anime fandoms on both sides of the Pacific.

Madoka’s success has raised an interesting question within the Western fanbase, however, and it ties into a common issue among the Anti-Moé Brigade.